Legal Commentary

Will A President Obama Do Anything On Health Care?

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

NOTE Krugman notices. Do not hold your breath waiing for the A-List blogs too.

In an earlier post, I highlighted a David Brooks column that took pokes at Hillary Clinton because Tennessee Bush Dog Democrat Jim Cooper did not like that Hillary fought for universal health care in 1993 and 1994. To me, that was something GOOD about Hillary.

Mike Lux at Open Left highlights that this same Jim Cooper is an Obama point man on health care. This is worrisome to say the least. As Lux writes:

[T]here are still certain things that make me really, really nervous about Obama. At the top of that list is the health care debate, where I think he's just wrong about the importance of universality, and where he's employed Harry and Louise-style tactics to argue against Clinton's plan. My concerns shifted into overdrive, though, when I noticed that the Obama campaign is now using Rep. Jim Cooper as a spokesperson/surrogate on health care.

I was part of the Clinton White House team on the health care reform issue in 1993/94, and no Democrat did more to destroy our chances in that fight than Jim Cooper. . . .

He quickly became the leading spokesman on the Dem side for the insurance industry position, and undercut us at every possible opportunity, basically ending any hopes we had for a unified Democratic Party position. I was never so delighted to see a Democrat lose as when he went down in the 1994 GOP tide.

What can we expect from a President Obama on health care? Nothing much it seems. It seems clear that if you care about universal health care, Obama is likely to not be your kind of President.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).